Introduction

America media, the first-rate Catholic publication by the Jesuits, carried the following story in its April 28 publication: “US Catholic bishops to vote on pressuring Joe Biden to stop taking Communion over abortion views.”

I want to underscore the words “to pressure” and “views”.

Why pressure? Why not debate, or even better, convince?

So, Joe Biden, like most people has some views. The bishops have views too.

But what we are being confronted with is much more sinister, worse than mere different viewpoints.

It is about authority, or better, authoritarianism. It is doctrine.

A little bit of recollection

When…

Before Covid-19, a pandemic of other proportions was raging in the United States. It had been there for many years, only it was not referred to as a pandemic.

There are no pathogens in this pandemic.

It cannot be treated with antibiotics.

There are no vaccines for it.

Nevertheless, it is a pandemic.

A brief history of mass shootings in the U.S

We are not going to attempt to analyze gun violence in general in this blog. That will require a full essay.

Let’s confine ourselves to mass shootings.

Notice that we did not talk about mass shootings for most…

In some misguided circles though, they prevail.

The theme of my blog is Liberation from superstition and credulity.

After following, with keen interest, some criticisms of Christianity by atheists and skeptics, I thought I should weigh in, not as an apologist for Christianity, or as another skeptic — which I am — but as a critical examiner of some of the damaging views and statements coming from some Christian quarters.

What I am discovering is a chain of blind, contradictory, non-sequiturs spread out every day, that harm the cause for the Faith. …

A Hell of a journey. What a ride

Perhaps it is not quite the end of Trumpism, but it looks like the beginning of the end.

In his speech in the Senate on that ill-famed night of insurrection (January 6, 2020) Sen Lindsey Graham made the following confession.

The journey began when Donald Trump entered the national political stage in 2015. By the time his campaign became the standard-bearer of the GOP in 2016, many on the opposition had labeled it “the clown train”.

And it sped on. In the end, he won the presidential election, leaving pundits surprised and…

During the Congressional certification of the 2020 presidential electoral college votes and following the pro-Trump mob breach of the Capitol, Senator Mitt Romney told pro-Trump senators, “Tell them the truth”.

He offered this advice to those wondering how to respond to the Americans who are claiming that Donald Trump, despite the challenges in state courts and the Supreme Court, won the 2020 election.

We might note that, Jesus gave the same advice in the gospel of John. “The truth will set you free”

The sociology of lying.

There is a general recognition that the path to the Trumpian mob’s breach…

It seems ironic that four years after Donald Trump coined the MAGA slogan, it should find its appropriate meaning as he exits the stage.

Back in 2016, after Trump was declared winner of the general election, I got into a long discussion with some friends. My question was simply, how did close to 63 million Americans — 47% of voters — vote for Trump?

This was after all the revelations about him during the primaries and to the general election. …

To Be Great is Willing To Be Little

This time between the presidential elections and the inauguration on January 20, 2021, seems an appropriate opportunity for some deep reflection. The end of a year is usually a good time for reflection anyway, but this is special.

It is not simply reflecting about 2020, a very consequential year, but the last four years. In many respects, it seems to me, the year would not have been as consequential if the preceding three years had been different.

When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he promised a nonstop show with himself as the show’s star.

He has not disappointed…

Leading from behind is an exercise in futility.

When JFK was running for president sixty years ago there was real fear that a Catholic president might be unduly influenced by the Vatican. In 2020 it is estimated Catholic voters split 50/50 between the two presidential candidates.

After sixty years it seemed like the stigma of a Catholic presidential candidate was over.

In September 2019, Pope Francis addressed Jesuit priests in Mozambique and noted the following: “Clericalism has a direct consequence in rigidity. Have you never seen young priests all stiff in black cassocks and hats in the shape of the…